3 


Reminiscences  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

One  Hundredth  Anniversary. 

\ 


^nitttrutr  <E^it 


REMINISCENCES  ABOUT 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


BY 


IRA  HAWORTH 


Also  An  Address  Delivered  Before  the 

Washingtonian  Temperance  Society,  at  the  Second 

Presbyterian  Church,  Springfield,  Illinois, 

February  22,  1842,  by 

Abraham  Lincoln. 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  KANSAS  CITY  SUN, 
7)2  N.  Sixth  Street,  Kansas  City,  Kansas. 


BRIEF  BIOGRAPHY  OF  THE  AUTHOR. 


For  the  purpose  of  answering  questions  often  propounded,  :' 

ofifer  this  brief  statement :    I  was  born  in  A\'ayne  County,  Indian  i 

on  August  5th,   1827   (of  Quaker  parentage),  where  I  grew  i  , 

manhood.     In  ni}-  twenty-second  year  I  was  married  and  a  fe 
years  later  located  in  Vermilion  County.  Illinois.     In  the  earl 
fifties  I  formed  an  accjuaintance  with  Abraham  Lincoln,  whic 
ripened  into  a  permanent  confidential  life  association  between  u 
I  was  often  in  his  council  when  he  was  a  prospective  candidal 
for  the  nomination  for  the  Presidency.     I  devoted  much  faithfi 
service  in  promoting  his  opportunity  for  that  position,  which  wa 
crownetl  with  success.    At  his  solicitation,  as  in  my  inexperiencec 
youthful    condition,    I    entered    the    campaign    service    and    wa 
termed  "the  farmer  campaigner,"  and  acquitted  nty  labors  in  suc 
a  way  as  to  win  the  approval  of  Air.  Lincoln,  as  the  sequel  dis 
closes,  in  the  reminisance  published  herewith,  to  which  I  solici 
your  most  respectful  consideration. 

Ira  Haworth. 


^^3.  lACo*^ 


B^  H3/ 


-t-- 


REMINISCENCES. 


3       . 

-  Being  the  Observations  of  One  of  Lincoln's  Early  Co-work- 

Ji,  ers,  Concerning  Events  of  More  Than  Fifty 

Years  Ago,  and  Later. 

»v-  (By  Ira  Haworth,  Kansas  City,  Kansas.) 

^  In    the    dawn   of   the     20th     century,     looking     backward 

—  through  the  vista  of  time,   I   recall    my    first    knowledge    of 
Lincoln.     Early  in   the  forties,  my  father,  then  a  resident  of 
the  state  of  Indiana,  had  correspondence  with  him  i^ertaining 
to  business  of  the  anti-slavery  cause,  in  which  my  father  was 
a  zealous  worker ;  and  previous  to  this  Lincoln  had  declared 
his  opposition  to  slavery  and  its  extension,  basing  his  opinion 
on  facts  experienced  in  the  South  where  he  had  been  reared. 
Thus  I  came  to  know  something"  of  his  individual  character 
and  sterling  qualities  of  mind  and  heart  prior  to  meeting  him. 
Having  been  requested  to  present  a  pen  picture  of  his  per- 
sonal appearance  as  I  saw  him,   I  will  cheerfully  do  so,  be- 
fore proceeding  further  with  this  narrative.     He  was  to  the 
casual  observer  a  peculiarly  attractive  figure,  indeed  quite  as 
much  so  in  his  general  appearance  as  in  his  character;  he  was 
tall    and   commanding    in    stature,    of   spare    proportions,    yet 
quite   muscular,   measuring  six  feet  four  inches   in  height  in 
^  bare  feet,  weighing  180  pounds.     His  hair  a  very  dark  brown, 
tj  of  coarse  growth;  his  eyes  were  hazel,  tending  to  a  grayish 
^  hue  in  color,  deep  set,  with  a  serious  expression  which  quickly 
lit  up  with  a  very  merry  twinkle  at  the  prospective  intriduc- 
<s  tion  of  a  mirth   provoking  jest  or  humorous  anecdote.     His 
^  nose  was  above  medium  size  and  slightly  of  the  Roman  type ; 
^    mouth  large,  lips  firm  of  medium  thickness,  his  chin  covered 
^  with  a  thin  beard,  his  features  rather  large  to  attract  admir- 
Ni^    ers,  yet  his  demeanor  was  that  of  extreme  simplicity,  together 
^    with    deliberate    movements   and     cordial,     dignified     bearing, 
i    characteristic  of  a  high  and  noble  manhood,   an   exemplifica- 
^>    tion  of  the  Creator's  handiwork — an  "honest  man,"  and  among 
\    the  large  number  of  great  and  good  men  that  have  occupied 
^  the  earth,  I  believe  that  Lincoln  has  had  but  few  equals  and 
no  superior  since  Christ,  the  world's  greatest  moral  teacher, 
dwelt  amongf  men.     Both  Lincoln's  and  mv  father's  ancestors 
were  members  of  a  religious  society  known  as  Quakers.     One 
of  their  declarations  or  tenets  of  faith  consisted  in  prohibiting 
members  from  owning  slaves,  or  by  other  means  to  give  en- 
couragement to  the  system  of  slavery.     Hence  it  was  but  a 
natural  coincidence  that  they  should  become  co-workers  to  the 

3 


-Ji 


o 

^ 


no^'^'^lO 


end  that  the  nefarious  system  should  be  removed  from  our 
fair  land  forever,  their  motto  being-  "Freedom  for  all,  and  all 
for  Freedom." 

In  the  year  1846,  Lincoln  was  elected  to  Congress  and  his 
services  were  sufficiently  appreciated  by  his  constituency  that 
they  desired  to  secure  them  for  another  term,  but  he  ecphat- 
icallv  declined  to  accept  their  preferred  offer,  stating  as  his 
reason  that  the  associations  of  home  were  preferable  to  the 
uncongenial  surroundings  of  life  in  AA'ashington. 

In  1847  Lincoln  stated  in  a  public  address  his  fidelity  to 
the  cause  of  temperance  and  then  pledged  his  assistance  for 
its  advancement  in  all  future  time.  Those  statements  attract- 
•ed  my  profound  admiration,  and  I  was  both  by  precept  and 
practice  a  teetotal  abstainer  and  on  having  found  a  public 
man  living  a  similar  life,  mv  attachment  for  him  at  once 
became  more  than  ordinary,  louring  a  private  conversation 
we  once  had,  he  remarked  that  he  had  never  in  his  life  taken 
a  drink  of  any  kind  of  intoxicating  liquor.  And  here  permit 
me  to  state,  lest  I  may  l)e  suspected  of  narrowness  in  my 
opinions,  that  while  the  two  great  subjects,  slavery  and  tem- 
perance, were  instrumental  in  forming  the  mutual  acquain- 
tance by  which  I  gained  so  much  valuable  information  of  that 
good  man  during  the  time  he  was  permitted  to  live,  he  was 
ever  found  on  the  side  of  justice  and  right, — at  heart  a  Chris- 
tion.  "Whatever  appears  to  be  God's  will,  I  will  do  it."  The 
above  remark  was  made  by  Lincoln  to  a  deputation  composed 
of  different  denominations  of  religious  societies  in  Chicago, 
111.,  who  called  on  him  at  the  White  Flouse,  September  13th, 
1862.  He  was  gifted  with  mysterious  ways.  His  "wonders 
to  perform,"  and  in  justification  of  his  pure  and  upright  life, 
I  desire  to  mention  a  worthy  incident  which  is  recorded  on 
page  47  in  the  history  entitled,  "\\"ords  of  Lincoln,"  published 
by  Osborn  H.  Oldroyd  in  1895  :  Remarks  made  to  the  com- 
mittee who  notified  him  at  his  home  in  Alay,  1860,  of  his 
nomination  for  the  Presidency,  "Gentlemen,  we  must  pledge 
our  mutual  health  in  this  most  healthful  beverage  which  God 
has  given  man.  It  is  the  only  beverage  I  have  used,  or  al- 
lowed in  my  family  and  I  cannot  consistently  depart  from  it 
on  the  present  important  occasion.  It  is  pure  Adam's  ale 
from  the  well."  And  beit  known  that  he  was  the  one  excep- 
tion of  our  chief  magistrates  who  have  had  the  integrity  to 
establish  a  grand  and  noble  record  of  this  character,  which 
I  trust  each  of  his  successors  in  all  future  time  may  seek  to 
emulate,  not  alone  honoring  themselves  thereby,  but  the 
nation  as  well. 

The  campaign  of  1848  was  closely  contested  by  the  most 
eminent  and  eloquent  orators  of  that  time.     Lincoln  took  an 


active  part  in  presenting-  the  issues  then  agitatins^  the  pul)lic 
mind,  and  thus  achieved  notoriety,  not  alone  in  his  home 
■state,  l)ut  the  neighboring  states  also.  The  result  of  that 
campaign  was  in  favor  of  the  candidate  of  the  Whig  party, 
hut  four  years  later  that  grand  old  party  went  down  under 
defeat,  to  come  up  no  more  forever.  In  the  year  1854,  an  agi- 
tation arose  and  soon  a  convulsion  of  no  small  magnitude  en- 
sued. The  signs  of  the  times  became  propitious;  the  political 
horizon  was  disturbed  as  never  before;  conferences  and  con- 
ventions were  the  order  of  the  day  throughout  the  common- 
wealth. The  final  result  terminated  in  calling  a  nationl  con- 
ference to  meet  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  for  the  purpose 
of  considering  the  propriety  of  organizing  a  new  political 
party.  The  voice  of  that  conference  was  unanimous  for  such 
organization,  and  conferred  upon  it  the  euphonious  titl-e  of 
the  Republican  party  of  Reform,  and  among  other  delibera- 
tions advised  by  that  body,  was  an  invitation  extended  to  all 
the  states  to  form  organizations,  preparatory  to  a  presidential 
campaign  for  the  year  1856,  as  in  uity  there  would  be  power. 
This  invitation  gave  Lincoln  another  opportunity  of  using^ 
all  honorable  means  at  his  command  to  execute  the  work  of 
organization  throughout  the  state  and  to  render  such  assis- 
tance to  surrounding  localities  as  circumstances  would  permit. 
The  work  was  arduous.  The  anti-slavery  party  discouraged 
the  new  movement  by  urging^  those  who  werethen  without  a 
party  to  join  their  ranks.  The  old  Democratic  party  was 
safely  in  possession  of  the  government,  so  well  fortified  that 
they  were  defiant  and  uncompromising  by  the  slavery  agita- 
tors and  were  therefore  far  from  being  asleep  at  their  signal 
posts,  and  those  who  were  in  favor  of  slavery  extension  and 
that  had  originally  affiliated  with  the  Whigs,  had  joined  the 
oligarchy,  who  received  them  joyfully.  Lincoln  was  expected 
to  advance  the  new  movement  by  organization  thorughout 
the  state,  and  having  received  a  request  from  him  to  that 
effect  (I  then  resided  in  Eastern  Illinois),  I  published  a  call. 
We  proceeded  to  form  an  organization  by  electing  officers 
and  adjourning  to  give  a  more  extended  notice  of  a  subse- 
quent meeting,  which  was  attended  by  a  large  number,  a  part 
of  whom  were  ladies,  who  rendered  good  services  later  on, 
as  the  sequel  will  disclose.  We  next  formed  a  county  organ- 
ization, which  in  due  time  was  merged  into  a  state  organiza- 
tion, and  each  county  thus  being  auxiliary  thereto,  we  com- 
pleted the  preliminary  arrangements  for  conducting  the  ap- 
proaching presidential  campaign,  and  as  my  signature  was 
attached  to  the  first  call,  I  was  complimented  by  having  a 
very  familiar  title  conferred, — that  of  "Father"  of  the  Repub- 
lican party  of  that  vicinity,  and  when  a  few  years  later,  hav- 
ing arranged  to  remove  from  that  locality,  my  good  friends 


adoption  yet  another  title,  that  of  "Great  Grandfather"  of  the 
called  on  me  in  a  social  body  to  extend  their  parting-  saluta- 
tions, and  as  I  was  the  only  survivor  of  the  original  six  who 
met  under  the  call,  the  sons  of  my  co-workers  conferred  the 
additional  title  of  "Grandfather"  of  the  party.  As  sixteen 
years  have  passed  since  this  title  alluded  to  was  conferred, 
and  in  view  of  the  further  fact  that  I  have  completed  my 
four  score  years  of  life,  I  will,  by  your  permission,  add  by 
grand  old  party,  and  as  I  will  soon  "wrap  the  drapery  of  my 
couch  about  me  and  lie  down  to  pleasant  dreams,"  farewell, 
old  party,  farewell.  And  may  your  successors,  as  they  go 
down  the  annals  of  time,  commemorate  and  perpetuate  the 
name  and  the  fame  of  the  party's  first  chosen  Chief  Magis- 
trate, Abraham   Lincoln. 

But  at  this  stage  of  the  organization  of  the  new  party, 
the  excitement  in  the  South,  as  a  result  of  the  uniting  of  the 
forces  in  the  North  along  the  lines  of  thorough  and  effective 
organization  (the  lack  of  which  caused  the  party's  defeat  four 
years  previous),  the  slave  rulei's  of  the  South  issued  their  oft 
repeated  warning  of  "54-40  or  fight,"  and  this  time  they  meant 
business,  as  they  had  all  the  government  munitions  of  war  and 
its  treasury  in  their  possession,  yet  under  such  discouraging 
circumstances  the  new  order  of  organization  proceeded  en- 
couragingly. Many  of  those  who  were  opposed  to  the  insti- 
tution of  slavery  and  had  served  in  the  ranks  of  the  old  Dem- 
ocratic party  took  this  opportunity  to  identify  themselves  with 
the  new  organization,  and  this  proved  to  be  the  straw  by 
which  the  wind  indicated  the  approaching  election  of  Lin- 
coln. 

Here  I  wish  to  mention  another  incident  very  creditable 
to  him,  which  transpired  previous  to  the  meeting  of  the  Na- 
tional Convention.  Lincoln  was  approached  by  a  party  who 
desired  to  be  empowered  to  negotiate  reward  for  promises  of 
influence  at  the  approaching  convention,  to  whom  he  gave 
this  emphatic  reply:  "No,  gentlemen,  I  have  not  sought  the 
nomination,  neither  will  I  attempt  to  buy  it  with  pledges.  If 
I  shall  receive  the  nomination  and  be  elected,  I  shall  ftot  go 
into  office  as  the  tool  of  this  or  that  man,  or  the  property  of 
any  faction  or  clique,  and  the  people's  choice  will  be  my 
choice.  I  desire  that  the  result  shall  be  to  keep  the  jewel  of 
liberty  in  the  family  of  freedom."  The  National  Convention 
to  which  I  was  a  delegate  met  in  Chicago  in  Alay,  1860,  and 
the  result  of  its  deliberations  was  selecting  Lincoln  as  the 
standard  bearer  of  the  Republican  party  for  the  pending  cam- 
paign. But  at  this  juncture  permit  me  to  call  your  attention 
to  an  incident  that  occurred  near  the  closing  hour  of  the  con- 
vention, while  of  minor  importance,  yet  worthy  of  mention 
as  having  a  bearing  upon  the  present  time.     After  the  count 


of  the  ballots  and  Lincoln's  name  was  announced  as  the  choice 
of  the  convention  for  the  nomination,  and  while  enthusiasm 
was  at  high  tide,  two  stalwart  ushers  entered  the  outer  door 
of  the  wigwam,  Ijearing  on  their  shoulders  a  unique  design, 
consisting  of  two  walnut  fence  rails^  decked  in  National  col- 
ors, in  the  center  of  which  mounted  upon  a  shield,  was  a  por- 
trait of  Lincoln,  decorated  by  the  American  flag.  As  the 
men  slowly  pressed  their  way  up  the  densely  packed  aisle, 
Avith  the  excitement  at  fever  heat,  the  audience  went  wild. 
Cheers  and  huzzas  rent  the  air,  hats  and  handkerchiefs  were 
thrown  frantically  throughout  the  apartments,  the  vast  as- 
semblage rising  to  their  feet,  en  masse,  as  the  men  deposited 
their  standard  on  the  platform  in  front,  while  the  band  struck 
up  "Hail  to  the  Chief,"  silencing  the  babble  of  voices  with 
its  soul-stirring-  music.  From  this  episode  the  opposing  polit- 
ical party  designated  Lincoln  as  the  "rail-splitter"'  candidate. 
The  rails  presented  on  this  occasion  were  made  by  Lincoln  in 
Avhat  was  then  Sangamon  County,  State  of  Illinois,  when  he 
was  twenty-one  years  of  age,  and  the}^  had  been  in  use  those 
intervening  years  on  the  farm  of  John  Hanks,  who  was  Lin- 
coln's uncle,  until  transported  by  Hanks  to  Chicago,  to  be 
held  in  readiness  for  display  in  the  event  of  Lincoln  being 
the  nominee. 

I  may  remark  here  incidentally  that  I>incoln  ordered 
made  from  one  of  those  rails  a  cane  and  gavel  and  presented 
them  to  me  as  a  token  of  friendship,  formed  by  several  years' 
intimate  association  with  him,  and  in  appreciation  of  services 
rendered  in  the  memorable  campaign  of  1860,  and  it  is  an  in- 
s]>iring  thought  today,  a  sublime  reflection,  that  the  hand  that 
felled  the  tree  from  which  these  momentoes  were  made,  was  the 
same  master  hand  that  by  "one  stroke  of  pen  broke  the  shaekles 
off  four  niiUion  skn'es." 

On  returning  home  from  the  con^■ention  we  realized  that 
our  work  had  but  begun.  Without  delay  we  proceeded  to 
organize  a  township  club,  and  in  order  to  add  interest,  we 
invited  the  ladies  to  assist  us,  which  produced  beneficial  re- 
sults. Soon  after  our  org-anization  the  County  Central  Com- 
mittee called  a  mass  meeting  to  be  held  at  our  county  seat 
and  in  order  to  create  enthusiasm  throughout  the  country, 
the  committee  offered  a  silk  flag  valued  at  $25.00  as  a  prize  to 
be  awarded  to  the  largest  delegation  making  the  best  dis- 
play from  any  single  township  from  the  county.  The  ladies, 
foremost  in  every  good  cause,  came  to  the  rescue  most  nobly 
and  no  pains  were  spared  in  artistic  designs  and  arranging 
pageant  for  parade,  and  when  the  meeting  day  arrived,  our 
delegation  in  royal  array  turned  out  some  hundred  strong. 
Conspicuous  in  the  line  of  march  in  the  display  of  states  was 
^'Bleeding  Kansas."     Thanks  to  an  overruling  providence,  no  ■ 


X 


stain  of  slavery  mars  her  fair  escutcheon  today.  As  the  hour 
of  adjournment  approached,  the  command  was  given  for  all 
delegations  to  pass  in  review  before  the  judge's  stand.  Eager 
eyes  watched  the  prize  flag  as  it  was  carefully  conveyed  to 
our  ranks  and  hoisted  at  the  mast  head  of  our  column.  Pa- 
triotism knew  no  bounds,  as  when  both  old  and  young  joined 
in  a  chorus  of  cheers,  as  with  laurels  won,  we  started  home- 
ward bound.  Beneath  the  folds  of  our  silken  trophy  rested 
the  tokens  of  esteem  received  that  day  from  Abraham  Lin- 
coln,— a  cane  and  gavel  bearing  the  instription  of  his  name 
and  my  own. 

The  remainder  of  the  campaign  marked  by  unflagging 
efforts,  until  success  crowned  our  labors  with  victory  at  the 
polls  and  Lincoln  was  elected  the  sixteenth  President  of  the 
United  States.  I  never  saw  him  after  he  took  his  departure 
for  the  seat  of  government.  The  outlook  was  gloomy  and 
foreboding ;  disruption  threatened ;  the  clouds  of  war  hovered 
ominously  over  the  land,  while  anxious  hearts  followed  him 
to  his  new  post  of  duty.  He  seemed  to  realize  the  great 
weight  of  his  responsibilities,  as  was  evidenced  by  his  own 
words,  "A  duty  devolves  on  me  that  is  greater  perhaps  than 
that  of  any  man  since  the  days  of  ^^''ashington."  He  never 
could  have  succeeded,  except  for  the  aid  of  Divine  Providence, 
on  which  he  at  all-  times  relied.  "I  feel  that  I  cannot  succeed, 
without  the  same  divine  aid,  and  on  the  Almighty  Being  I 
now  place  my  reliance."  Commensurate  with  his  faith  did 
his  labors  prove,  and  his  name  will  go  down  to  future  gen- 
erations allied  with  that  of  Washington,  "The  Father  of  our 
Country."  The  one,  savior  and  founder;  the  other,  preserver 
and  liberator. 

His  keen  sense  of  justice  and  right,  combined  with  rare 
and  unswerving  purpose,  carried  the  nation  safely  through 
the  crisis  of  the  war  for  the  L^nion,  "that  this  government 
of  the  people,  by  the  people  and  for  the  people  shall  not 
perish  from  the  earth."  (This  last  sentence  is  a  quotation 
from  Lincoln's  Gettysburg  speech.) 

The  arduous  labor  in  his  early  years,  in  plucking  the 
native  tree  from  its  forest  bed,  modeling  it  into  man's  conven- 
ience, was  the  rudimentary  process  of  development  whereby 
the  sturdy  frame  and  vigorous  brain  were  made  the  super- 
structure to  sustain  the  spirit  in  its  LTerculean  work  of  coming 
years,  when  by  the  sheer  force  of  will  he  held  tog;ether  the 
timbers  of  government,  until  at  the  very  acme  of  power,  at 
the  supreme  moment  when  a  victorious  peace  was  about  to 
spread  her  benign  influence  over  the  land  once  more,  came 
the  shock  of  his  tragic  assassination  at  Yvashington.  A  na- 
tion mourned.  The  people  were  overwhelmed  with  grief. 
Each  felt  a  loss  as  of  a  personal  friend.     A  wail  of  anguish 

8 


went  forth  from  all  loyal  hearts  in  one  agonized  cry, — "Our 
leader  has  fallen."  As  voiced  by  the  poet,  Walt  Whitman, 
on  the  death  of  Lincoln : 

My  captain  does  not  hear  my  voice,  his  lips  are  pale  and  still. 
My  father  does  not  feel  my  arm,  he  has  no  pulse  or  will ; 
The  ship  is  anchored  safe  and  sound,  its  voyage  closed  and  done 
From  fearful  trip  the  victor  ship  comes  in  with  object  won. 

Exult,  O  Shores,  and  ring,  O  Bells, 

But  I  with  mournful  tread. 
Walk  the  deck, — my  captain  lies 

Fallen,  cold  and  dead. 

Thus  passed  from  ''works  to  reward"  America's  greatest 
statesman,  "the  most  perfect  ruler  of  men  the  world  ever  saw." 
(W'ords  of  Edwin  M.  Stanton.  He  leaves  to  us  the  legacy 
of  his  example  and  good  deeds  that  will  descend  to  posterity, 
while  the  light  of  the  imperishable  principles  nourished  in 
the  soil  of  human  hearts  will  grow  brighter  and  brighter  down 
the  ages,  a  living  monument,  far  more  beautiful  than  any  work 
of  art,  more  magnificent  and  enduring  than  granite.  Monuments 
of  marble  will  crumble  and  decay,  but  the  monument  of  good 
deeds  will  endure  forever. 

In  grateful  remembrance  of  his  worth  and  works,  we 
reverently  place  on  memory's  altar  today  this  feeble  tribute 
to  our  beloved  "Abraham  Lincoln — Emancipator,  Father  and 
Friend,  Immortal  Evermore." 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF  ABRAHA^I  LIXCOLX. 

'.VRITTEN    BY    HIMSELF   IN    1859,    AT    THE   Ro-QUEST   OF    J.    W.    FELL, 

OF   SPRINGFIELD,    ILL. 

In  the  note  which  accompanied  it,  the  writer  says,  herewith 
is  a  httle  sketch  as  you  requested.  There  is  not  much  of  it,  for 
the  reason.  I  suppose,  that  there  is  not  much  of  me: 

'T  was  born  February  12th,  1809,  in  Hardin  County,  Ky, 
My  parents  were  both  born  in  \'irginia,  of  undistinguished  fam- 
ilies, second  famihes  perhaps.  I  should  say,  my  mother,  who  died 
in  my  tenth  year,  was  of  a  family  of  the  name  of  Hanks,  some 
of  whom  now  reside  in  Adams  County,  and  others  in  Mason 
County,  111.  ]\Iy  paternal  grandfather,  Abraham  Lincoln,  emi- 
grated from  Rockingham  County,  \'irginia.  to  Kentucky  about 
the  year  1781  or  1782,  wdiere  a  year  or  two  later  he  was  killed 
by  Indians,  not  in  battle,  but  by  stealth  wdien  he  was  laboring  to 
open  a  farm  in  the  forest.  His  ancestors,  who  were  Quakers,, 
went  to  \'irginia  from  Buiks  County,  Pa.  If  any  personal  de- 
scription of  me  is  thought  desirable,  it  may  be  said  I  am  in  height,, 
six  feet  four  inches  ;  lean  in  flesh,  weighing  on  an  average,  one 
hundred  and  eighty  pounds  ;  dark  complexioned,  with  coarse,  dark 
hair  and  eyes  hazel,  with  a  greyish  hue  in  color.  Xo  other  marks 
or  brands  recollected. 

Abraham  Lincoln." 


Here  is  a  sketch  not  so  long: 
When  the  compiler  of  the  dictionary  of  congress  was  pre- 
paring that  work  for  publication  in   18.58,  he  sent  Mr.  Lincoln 
the  usual  request  for  a  sketch  of  his  life,  to  which  he  receivecE 
in  June  of  that  the  following  reply : 

"Born  February  12,  1809,  in  Hardin  County,  Ky.  Education,, 
defective.  Profession,  a  lawyer.  Have  been  a  captain  of  volun- 
teers in  Black  Hawk  war.  Postmaster  at  a  very  small  office. 
Four  times  a  member  of  the  Illinois  Legislature,  and  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Lower  House  of  Congress. 

Yours,  etc., 

Abraha>i[  Lincoln." 

LINCOLX  AS  POSTMASTER. 

During  the  intervening  years  of  1836  to  1837,  Abrahan 
Lincoln  held  the  appointment  of  Postmaster  at  Xew  Salem,  111.,. 
and  in  the  year  1837  he  located  in  Springfield,  where  he  engaged 
in  the  law  practice.  In  1859  an  agent  of  the  Postoffice  Depart- 
ment called  on  him  as  the  late  Postmaster  at  New  Salem,  111.,  to- 
obtain  a  small  balance  of  seventeen  dollars,  which  was  found  due 
the  department.  Going  to  an  old  trunk,  Mr.  Lincoln  took  there- 
from the  exact  amount,  which  he  placed  there  when  he  sur- 
rendered the  office  to  his  successor.  Handing  it  to  the  agent 
with  the  remark:     'T  never  use  any  man's  money  but  my  own."" 

10 


s^ 


Lincoln's  Birthplace. 


Abraham  Lincoln's  Residence,  Springfield,  III.— The  Only  Residence  he  Ever  Owned. 


A  FORCEFUL  TEMPERANCE  ADDRESS. 


Delivered  Before  the  Washingtonian  Temperance  Society  of    Spriugfield, 
Illinois,  February  22,  1842,  by  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Although  the  Temperance  Cause  has  been  in  progress  for 
near  twenty  years,  it  is  apparent  to  all  that  it  is  just  now  being 
crowned  with  a  degree  of  success,  hitherto  unparralleled. 

The  list  of  its  friends  is  daily  swelled  by  the  additions  of 
fifties,  of  hundreds,  and  of  thousands.  The  cause  itself  seems 
.■suddenly  transformed  from  a  cold  abstract  theory,  to  a  living, 
breathing,  active  and  powerful  cheiftain,  going  forth  "conquer- 
ing and  to  conquer."  The  citadels  of  his  great  adversary  are 
daily  being  stormed  and  dismantled  ;  his  temples  and  his  altars, 
where  the  rites  of  liis  idolatrous  worship  have  long  been  per- 
formed, and  wdiere  human  sacrifices  have  long  been  wont  to  be 
the  conquerer's  fame  is  sounding  from  hill  to  hill,  from  sea  to  sea, 
and  from  land  to  land,  and  calling  millions  to  his  standard  at  a 
blast. 

For  this  new  and  splendid  success  we  heartily  rejoice.  That 
that  success  is  so  much  greater  now  tha  nheretofore,  is  doubt- 
less owing  to  rational  causes;  and  if  we  would  have  it  continue, 
we  shall  do  well  to  inquire  what  those  causes  are. 

The  warfare  heretofore  waged  against  the  demon  intemper- 
ance has,  somehow  or  other,  been  erroneous.  Either  the  cham- 
pions engaged,  or  the  tactics  they  adopted,  have  not  been  the  most 
proper.  These  champions  for  the  most  part  have  been  preach- 
ers, lawyers,  and  hired  agents,  between  these  and  the  mass  of 
mankind,  there  is  a  want  of  approachability,  if  the  term  be  ad- 
nn'ssable,  partially,  at  least,  fatal  to  their  success.  They  are  sup- 
posed to  have  no  sympathy  of  feeling  or  interest,  with  those  very 
persons  whom  it  is  their  objects  to  convince  and  persuade. 

And  again,  it  is  so  easy  and  so  common  to  ascribe  motives  to 
men  of  these  classes,  other  than  those  they  profess  to  act  upon. 
The  preacher,  it  is  said,  advocates  temperance  because  he  is  a 
fanatic,  and  desires  a  union  of  the  church  and  State ;  the  lawyer 
from  his  pride,  and  vanity  of  hearing  himself  speak;  and  the 
hired  agent  for  his  salary. 

But  when  one.  who  has  long  been  known  as  a  victim  of  in- 
temperance, bursts  the  fetters  that  have  bound  him,  and  ap- 
pears before  his  neighbors  "clothed  and  in  his  right  mind,"  a  re- 
deemed specimen  of  long  lost  humanity,  and  stands  up  with  tears 
of  joy  trembling  in  his  eyes,  to  tell  of  the  miseries  once  endured, 
now  to  be  endured  no  more  forever  of  his  once  naked  and 
starving  children,  now  clad  and  fed  comfortably;  of  a  wife,  long 
weighed  down  with  woe,  weeping  and  a  broken  heart,  now  re- 
stored  to  health,   happiness   and  a  renewed  affection ;  and  how 

13 


easily  it  is  all  done,  once  it  is  resolved  to  be  done ;  how  simple  his 
language,  there  is  a  logic  and  an  eloquence  in  it  that  few  with 
human  feelings  can  resist.  They  cannot  say  that  he  desires  a 
miion  of  church  and  State,  for  he  is  not  a  church  member ;  they 
caonnt  say  he  is  vain  of  hearing  himself  speak,  for  his  whole 
demeanor  shows  he  would  gladly  avoid  speaking  at  all ;  they  can- 
not say  he  speaks  for  pay,  for  he  receives  none,  and  asks  for 
none.  Xor  can  his  sincerity  in  any  way  be  doubted ;  or  his  sym- 
pathy for  those  he  would  persuade  to  imitate  his  example  be 
denied. 

In  my  judgment  it  is  to  the  battles  of  this  new  class  of 
•champions  that  our  late  success  is  greatly,  perhaps  chiefly,  owing. 
But,  had  the  old-school  champions  themselves  been  of  the  most 
wise  selecting,  was  their  system  of  tactics  the  most  judicious?  It 
•seems  to  me  it  was  not.  Too  much  denunciation  against  dram- 
sellers  and  dram-drinkers  was  indulged  in.  This,  I  think,  was 
both  impolitic  and  unjust.  It  was  impolitic,  because  it  is  not 
much  in  the  nature  of  a  man  to  be  driven  to  anything;  still  less 
to  be  driven  about  that  which  is  exclusively  his  own  business ;  and 
least  of  all,  where  such  driving  is  to  be  submitted  to,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  pecuniary  interest,  or  burning  appetite.  When  the 
dram-seller  and  drinker  were  incessantly  told,  not  in  the  accents 
of  entreaty  and  persuasion,  diffidently  addressed  by  erring  man 
to  an  erring  brother ;  but  in  the  thundering  tones  of  anathema 
and  denunciation,  with  which  the  lordly  judge  often  groups  to- 
gether all  the  crimes  of  the  felon's  life,  and  thrusts  them  in  his 
face  just  ere  he  passes  sentence  of  death  upon  him,  that  they 
were  the  authors  of  all  the  vice  and  misery  and  crime  of  the 
land;  that  they  were  the  manufacturers  and  material  of  all  the 
thieves  and  robbers  and  murderers  that  infest  the  earth;  that 
their  houses  were  the  workshops  of  the  devil ;  and  that  their 
jjersons  should  be  shunned  by  all  the  good  and  virtuous  as  moral 
pestilences.  I  say,  when  they  were  told  all  this,  and  in  this  way, 
it  is  not  wonderful  that  they  were  slow,  very  slow,  to  acknowl- 
edge the  truth  of  such  denunciations,  and  to  join  the  ranks  of 
their  denouncers,  in  a  hue  and  cry  against  themselves. 

To  have  expected  them  to  do  otherwise  than  thev  did — to 
have  expected  them  not  to  meet  denunciation  with  anathema — 
was  to  expect  a  reversal  of  human  nature,  which  is  God's  decree 
and  can  never  be  reversed. 

When  the  conduct  of  men  is  designed  to  be  influenced,  per- 
suasion, kind,  unassuming  persuasion,  should  ever  be  adopted. 
Jt  is  an  old  and  a  true  maxim  "that  a  drop  of  honey  catches 
more  flies  than  a  gallon  of  gall."  So  with  men.  If  you  would 
win  your  man  to  your  cause,  first  convince  him  that  you  are  his 
sincere  friend.  Therein  is  a  drop  of  honey  that  catches  his 
heart,  whfch,  say  what  he  will,  is  the  great  high  road  to  his 
reason,  and  which,  when   once  gained,   you   will  find  but  little 

14 


I'-ouble  in  convinciiiy  his  judgment  of  the  justice  of  your 
cause,  if  indeed  that  cause  really  be  a  just  one.  On  the  con- 
fary,  assume  to  dictate  to  his  judgment,  or  to  command  his 
action,  or  to  mark  him  as  one  to  be  shunned  and  despised,  and  he 
will  retreat  within  himself,  close  all  the  avenues  to  his  head  and 
his  heart ;  and  though  your  cause  be  naked  truth  itself,  trans- 
formed to  the  heaviest  lance,  lArder  than  steel,  and  sharper 
than  steel  can  be  made,  and  though  you  throw  it  with  more  than 
herculean  force  and  precision,  you  shall  no  more  be  able  to 
pierce  him  than  to  penetrate  the  hard  shell  of  a  tortoise  with  a 
rye  straw.  Such  is  man,  and  so  must  he  be  understood  by  those 
v»  ho  lead  him,  even  to  his  own  interests. 

On  t-his  point  the  Washingtonians  greatly  excel  the  temper- 
ance advocates  of  former  times.  Those  whom  they  desire  to 
convince  and  persuade  are  their  old  friends  and  companions. 
They  know  they  are  not  demons,  nor  even  the  worst  of  men; 
they  know  that  g-enerally  they  are  kind,  generous  and  charit- 
able, even  beyond  the  example  of  their  more  staid  and  sober 
neighbors.  They  are  practical  philanthropists ;  and  they  glow 
witli  a  generous  and  brotherly  zeal,  that  mere  theorizers  are 
incapable  of  feeling.  Benevolence  and  charity  possess  their 
hearts  entirely;  and  out  of  the  abundance  of  their  hearts,  their 
tongues  give  utterance.  "Love  through  all  their  actions  run,  and 
all  their  "words  are  mild;"  in  this  spirit  they  speak  and  act.  and 
in  the  same  they  are  heaj-d  and  regarded.  And  when  such  is  the 
temper  of  the  advocate,  and  such  of  the  audience,  no  good 
cause  can  be  unsuccessful.  But  I  have  said  that  denunciations 
against  dram-sellers  and  dram-drinkers  are  unjust  as  well  as 
impolitic.     Let  us  see.  4., 

I  have  not  inquired  at  what  period  of  time  the  use  of  intox- 
icating lic^uors  commenced,  nor  is  it  important  to  know.  It  is- 
sufficient  that  to  all  of  us  who  now  inhabit  the  world,  the  prac- 
tice of  drinking  them  is  just  as  old  as  the  world  itself — that  is,, 
we  have  seen  the  one  just  as  long  as  we  have  seen  the  other. 
When  all  such  of  us  as  have  now  reached  the  years  of  maturity 
first  opened  our  eyes  upon  the  stage  of  existence,  we  found  intox- 
icating liquor ;  recognized  by  everybody,  used  by  everybody, 
draught  of  the  infant,  and  the  last  draught  of  the  dying  man. 
From  the  sideboard  of  the  parson  down  to  the  ragged  pocket  of 
the  houseless  loafer  it  was  constantly  found.  Physicans  pre- 
scribed it  in  this,  that  and  other  disease;  government  ])rovided' 
it  for  soldiers  and  sailors ;  and  to  have  a  rolling  or  raising,  ai 
husking  or  "hoe-down''  anywhere  about,  without  it,  was  positively: 
unsufferahle.  So,  too,  it  was  everywhere  a  respectable  article 
of  manufacture  and  merchandise.  The  making  of  it  was  regarded 
as  an  honorable  livelihood,  and  he  that  could  make  most  was 
the  most  enterprising  and  respectable.  Large  and  small  manu- 
factories of  it  were  ever3-where  erected,  in  which  all  the  earthly 

15 


goods  of  their  owners  were  invested.  Wagons  drew  it  from 
town  to  town  ;  boats  bore  it  from  clime  to  clime,  and  the  winds 
wafted  it  from  nation  to  nation ;  and  merchants  bought  and  sold 
it,  by  wholesale  and  retail,  with  precisely  the  same  feelings  on 
the  part  of  the  seller,  buyer  and  by-stander,  as  are  felt  at  the 
buying  and  selling  of  plows,  beef,  bacon  or  any  other  of  the  real 
necessities  of  life.  Universal  public  opinion  not  only  tolerated, 
but  recognized  and  adopted  its  use. 

It  is  true  that  even  then  it  was  known  and  acknowledged 
that  many  were  greatly  injured  by  it;  but  none  seemed  to  think 
the  injury  arose  from  the  use  of  a  bad  thing,  but  from  the  abuse 
of  a  very  good  thing.  The  victims  of  it  were  to  be  pitied,  and 
compassioned,  just  as  are  the  heirs  of  consumption,  and  other 
liereditary  diseases.  Their  failing  was  treated  as  a  misfortune, 
not  as  a  crime,  or  even  as  a  disgrace. 

If  then,  what  I  have  been  saying  is  true,  is  it  wonderful 
that  some  should  think  and  act  now,  as  all  thought  and  acted 
twenty  years  ago,  and  is  it  just  to  assail,  condemn  and  despise 
them  for  doing  so?  The  universal  sense  of  mankind  on  any 
.subject,  is  an  argument,  or  at  least  an  influence  not  easily  over- 
come. The  success  of  the  argument  in  favor  of  the  existence 
of  an  overruling  Providence  mainly  depends  upon  that  sense ; 
and  men  ought  not,  in  justice,  to  be  denounced  for  yielding  to 
it  in  any  case,  or  giving  it  up  slowly,  especially  when  they  are 
backed  by  interest,  fixed  habits  or  burning  appetites. 

Another  error,  as  it  seems  to  me,  into  which  the  old  reform- 
ers fell  was  the  position  that  all  habitual  drunkards  were  utterly 
incorrigible,  and  therefore  must  be  turned  adrift,  and  damned 
without  remedy,  in  order  that  the  grace  of  temperance  might 
abound,  to  the  temperate  then,  and  to  all  mankind  some  hundreds 
of  years  thereafter.  There  is  in  this  something'  so  repugnant  to 
humanity,  so  uncharitable,  so  cold  blooded  and  feelingless,  that  it 
never  did,  nor  never  can  enlist  the  enthusiasm  of  a  popular  cause. 
We  could  not  love  the  man  who  taught  it — we  could  not  hear 
him  with  patience.  The  heart  could  not  throw  open  its  portals 
to  it.  the  generous  man  could  not  adopt  it,  it  could  not  mix  with 
his  blood.  It  looked  so  fiendishly  selfish,  so  like  throwing  fathers 
and  brothers  overboard  to  lighten  the  boat  for  our  security — 
that  the  noble-minded  shrank  from  the  manifest  meanness  of  the 
thing.  And  besides  this,  the  benefits  of  a  reformation  to  be 
effected  by  such  a  system  were  too  remote  in  point  of  time  to 
warmly  engage  many  in  its  behalf.  Few  can  be  induced  to  labor 
exclusively  for  posterity,  and  none  will  do  it  enthusiastically. 
Posterity  has  done  nothing  for  us ;  and  theorize  on  it  as  we  may, 
practically  we  shall  do  very  little  for  it  unless  we  are  made  to 
think  we  are,  at  the  same  time,  doing  something  for  ourselves. 

What  an  ignorance  of  human  nature  does  it  exhibit  to  ask 
or  expect  a  whole  comiiiunity  to  rise  up  and  labor  for  the  tem- 

16 


;j)oral  happiness  of  others,  after  themselves  shall  be  consigned 
to  the  dust,  a  majority  of  which  community  take  no  pains  what- 
ever to  secure  their  own  eternal  welfare  at  no  greater  distant 
day?  Great  distance  in  either  time  or  space  has  wonderful 
power  to  lull  and  render  quiescent  the  human  mind.  Pleasures 
to  be  enjoyed,  or  pains  to  be  endured,  after  we  shall  be  dead 
iind  gone  are  but  little  regarded,  even  in  our  own  cases,  and 
much  less  in  the  cases  of  others. 

Still,  in  addition  to  this,  there  is  something  so  ludicrous  in 
promises  of  good,  or  threats  of  evil,  a  great  way  off,  as  to  render 
the  whole  subject  with  which  they  are  connected,  easily  turned 
into  ridicule.  "Jjetter  lay  down  that  spade  you're  stealing, 
Paddy — if  you  don't  you'll  pay  for  it  at  the  day  of  judgment." 
"Be  the  powers,  if  ye'U  credit  me  so  long  FU  take  another  jist." 

By  the  Washingtonians  this  system  of  consigning  the  habit- 
ual dnmkard  to  hopless  ruin  is  repudiated.  They  adopt  a  more 
enlarged  philanthropy,  they  go  for  present  as  well  as  future  good. 
They  labor  for  all  now  living,  as  well  as  hereafter  to  live.  They 
teach  hope  to  all — despair  to  none.  As  applying  to  their  cause, 
they  deny  the  doctrine  of  unpardonable  sin,  as  in  Christianity  it 
is  taught,  so  in  this  they  teach — 

"While  the  lamp  holds  out  to  burn 
The  vilest  sinner  may  return." 
And,  what  is  a  matter  of  the  most  profound  congratulation, 
they,,  by  experiment  upon  experiment,  and  example  upon  exam- 
ple, prove  the  maximum  to  be  no  less  true  in  the  one  case  than  in 
the  other.  On  every  hand  we  behold  those  who  but  yesterday 
were  the  chief  sinners,  now  the  chief  apostles  of  the  cause. 
Drunken  devils  are  cast  out  by  ones,  by  sevens,  by  legions;  and 
their  unfortunate  victims,  like  the  poor  possessed,  who  was  re- 
deemed from  his  long  and  lonely  wanderings  in  the  tombs,  are 
publishing  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  how  great  things  have  been 
done  for  them. 

To  these  new  champions,  and  this  new  system  of  tactics, 
our  late  success  is  mainly  owing;  and  to  them  we  must  mainly 
look  for  the  final  consummation.  The  ball  is  now  rolling  glori- 
ously on,  and  none  are  so  able  as  they  to  increase  its  speed,  and 
its  bulk — to  add  to  its  momentum  and  its  magnitude — even 
though  unlearned  in  letters,  for  this  task  none  are  so  well  edu- 
cated. To  fit  them  for  this  work  they  have  been  taught  in  the 
true  school.  They  have  been  in  that  gulf  from  which  they  would 
teach  others  the  means  of  escape.  They  have  passed  that  prison 
wall,  which  others  have  long  declared  impassable ;  and  who  that 
has  not  shall  dare  to  weigh  opinions  with  them  as  to  the  mode 
.  of  passing? 

But  if  it  be  true,  as  I  have  insisted,  that  those  who  have 
suffered  by  intemperance  personally  and  have  reformed  are  the 
most  powerful   and   efficient   instruments   to   push  the   reforma- 

n 


tion  to  ultimate  success,  it  does  not  follow  that  those  who  have 
not  suffered  have  no  part  left  them  to  perform.  Whether  or 
not  the  world  would  be  vastly  benefited  by  a  total  and  final  ban- 
ishment from  it  of  all  intoxicating-  drinks  seems  to  me  not  now 
an  open  question.  Three-fourths  of  mankind  confess  the  affirm- 
ative with  their  tongues,  and,  I  believe,  all  the  rest  acknowledge 
is  in  their  hearts. 

Ought  any,  then,  to  refuse  their  aid  in  doing  what  good  the 
good  of  the  whole  demands?  Shall  he  who  cannot  do  much  be 
for  that  reason,  excused  if  he  do  nothing?  "But."  says  one, 
"what  good  can  I  do  by  signing  the  pledge  ?  I  never  drink,  even 
without  signing."  This  cjuestion  has  already  been  asked  and 
answered  more  than  a  million  times.  Let  is  be  answered  once 
more.  For  the  man  suddently,  or  in  any  other  way.  to  break 
oft'  from  the  use  of  drams,  who  has  indulged  in  them  for  a  long 
course  of  yearf,  and  until  his  appetite  for  them  has  grown  ten 
or  a  hundred  Ijld  stronger  and  more  craving  than  any  natural 
appetite  can  bt ,  requires  a  most  powerful  moral  effect.  In 
such  an  undert.  .king  he  needs  every  moral  support  and  influ- 
ence that  can  possibly  be  brought  to  his  aid  and  thrown  around 
him.  And  not  i.nly  so,  but  every  moral  prop  should  be  taken 
from  whatever  argument  might  rise  in  his  mind  to  lure  him  to 
his  backsliding.  When  he  casts  his  eyes  around  him  he  should 
be  able  to  see  all  that  he  respects,  all  that  he  admires,  all  that 
he  loves,  kindly  and  anxiously  pointing  him  onward  and  none 
beckoning  him  back  to  his  former  miserable  "wallowing  in  the 


mire." 


But  it  is  said  by  some  that  men  will  think  and  act  for 
themselves ;  that  none  will  disuse  spirits  or  anything  else  because 
his  neighbors  do ;  and  that  moral  influence  is  not  that  powerful 
engine  contended  for.  Let  us  examine  this.  Let  me  ask  the 
man  who  would  retain  this  position  most  stiffly  what  compensa- 
tion he  will  accept  to  go  to  church  some  Sunday  and  sit  during 
the  sermon  with  his  wife's  bonner  on  his  head?  Xot  a  trifle, 
I'll  venture.  And  why  not?  There  would  be  nothing  irreligious 
in  it;  nothing  immoral,  nothing  uncomfortable — then  why  not? 
Ls  it  not  because  there  would  be  something  egregiously  unfash- 
ionable in  it?  Then  it  is  the  influence  of  fashion;  and  what  is 
the  influence  of  fe^.-^hion  but  the  influence  that  other  people's 
actions  have  on  our  own  actions — the  strong  inclination  each  of 
us  feels  to  do  as  we  see  all  our  neighbors  do?  Nor  is  the 
influence  of  fashion  confined  to  any  particular  thing  or  class  of 
things.  It  is  just  as  strong  on  one  subject  as  another.  Let  us 
make  it  as  unfashionable  to  withhold  our  names  from  the  tem- 
perance pledge  as  for  husbands  to  wear  their  wives'  bonnets  to 
church,  and  instances  will  be  just  as  rare  in  the  one  case  as 
the  other. 

"But,"  say  some,  "we  are  no  drunkards,  and  we  shall  not 

18 


acknowledge  ourselves  sucli  by  joining  a  reformed  drunkard's 
society,  whatever  our  inHuence  might  me."  Surely  no  Christian 
will  adhere  to  this  objection. 

If  they  believe,  as  they  profess,  that  Omnipotence  conde- 
i^cended  to  take  on  Himself  the  form  of  sinful  man  and,  as  such, 
to  die  an  ignominious  death  for  their  sakes,  surely  they  will  not 
refuse  submission  to  that  infinitely  lesser  condescension  for  the 
temporal  and  perhaps  eternal  salvation  of  a  large,  erring  and 
unfortunate  class  of  their  fellow  creatures.  Nor  is  the  conde- 
scension very  great.  In  my  judgment,  such  of  us  as  have  never 
fallen  victims  have  been  spared  more  from  the  absence  of  appe- 
tite than  from  an}-  mental  or  moral  superiority  over  those  who 
have.  Indeed,  I  believe  if  we  take  habitual  drunkards  as  a 
.class  their  heads  and  their  hearts  will  bear  an  advantageous 
■comparison  with  those  of  any  other  class.  There  seems  ever  to 
have  been  a  proneness  in  the  brilliant  and  warm-blooded  to  fall 
into  this  vice — the  demon  of  intemperance  ever  seems  to  have 
delighted  in  sucking  the  blood  of  genius  and  of  generosity. 
A\'hat  one  of  us  but  what  can  call  to  mind  some  relative,  more 
promising  in  youth  than  all  his  fellows,  who  has  fallen  a  sacri- 
fice to  his  rapacity?  He  ever  seems  to  have  gone  forth  like  the 
Egyptian  angel  of  death,  commissioned  to  slay,  if  not  the  first, 
the  fairest  born  of  every  family.  Shall  he  now  be  arrested  in 
his  desolating  career?  In  that  arrest  all  can  give  aid  that  will; 
and  who  shall  be  excused  that  can  and  will  not  ?  Far  around  as 
human  breath  has  ever  blown,  he  keeps  our  fathers,  our  brothers, 
our  sons,  and  our  friends  prostrate  in  the  chains  of  moral  death. 
To  all  the  living  everywhere  we  cry,  "Come,  sound  the  moral 
trump  that  these  may  rise  and  stand  up  an  exceeding  great 
army" — "Come  from  the  four  winds,  O  breath !  and  breathe 
upon  these  slain  that  they  may  live."  If  the  relative  grandeur 
of  revolutions  shall  be  estimated  by  the  great  amount  of  human 
misery  they  alleviate,  and  the  small  amount  they  inflict,  then, 
indeed,  will  this  be  the  grandest  the  world  shall  ever  have  seen. 

Of  our  political  revolution  of  '76  we  are  all  justly  proud. 
It  has  given  us  a  degree  of  political  freedom  far  exceeding  that 
of  any  other  nations  of  the  earth.  In  it  the  world  has  found  a 
solution  of  the  long-mooted  problem  as  to  the  capability  of  man 
to  govern  himself.  In  it  was  the  germ  which  has  vegetated,  and 
still  is  to  grow  and  expand  into  the  universal  liberty  of  mankind. 

But  with  all  these  glorious  results,  past,  present  and  to 
come,  it  had  its  evils  too.  It  breathed  forth  famine,  swam  in 
blood  and  rode  in  fire;  and  long,  long'  after,  the  orphans"  cry  and 
the  widows'  wail  continue  to  break  the  sad  silence  that  ensued. 
These  were  the  price,  the  inevitable  price,  paid  for  the  blessings 
it  brought. 

Turn  now  to  the  temperance  revolution.     In  it  we  shall  find 
.  a  stronger  bondage  broken,  a  viler  slavery  manumitted,  a  greater 

19 


tyrant  deposed — in  it  more  of  want  supplied,  more  disease  healed, 
more  sorrow  assuaged.  By  it  no  orphans  starving,  no  widows 
weeping.  By  it  none  wounded  in  feeling,  none  injured  in  inter- 
est; even  the  dram-maker  and  the  dram-seller  will  have  glided 
into  other  occupations  so  gradually  as  never  to  have  felt  the 
change,  and  will  stand  ready  to  join  all  others  in  the  universal 
song  of  gladness.  And  what  a  noble  ally  this  to  the  cause  of 
political  freedom,  with  such  an  aid,  its  march  cannot  fail  to  be 
on  and  on,  till  every  son  of  earth  shall  drink  in  rich  fruition  the 
sorrow-C[uenching  draughts  of  perfect  liberty.  Happy  day  when 
all  appetites  controlled,  all  passions  subdued,  all  matter  subjected; 
mind,  all  conquering  mind  shall  live  and  move,  the  monarch  of 
the  world.  Glorious  consummation!  Hail  fall  of  fury!  Reign 
of  reason,  all  hail ! 

And  when  the  victory  shall  be  complete — when  there  shall 
be  neither  a  slave  nor  a  drunkard  on  the  earth — how  proud  the 
title  of  that  Land,  which  may  truly  claim  to  be  the  birthplace 
and  the  cradle  of  both  those  revolutions,  that  shall  have  ended 
in  that  victory.  How  nobly  distinguished  that  people  who  shall 
have  planted,  and  nurtured  to  maturity,  both  the  political  and 
moral  freedom  of  their  species. 

This  is  the  one  hundred  and  tenth  anniversary  of  the 
birthday  of  Washington — we  are  met  to  celebrate  this  day. 
Washington  is  the  mightiest  name  of  earth — long  since  might- 
iest in  the  cause  of  civil  liberty,  still  mightiest  in  moral  refor- 
mation. On  that  name  a  eulogy  is  expected.  It  cannot  be. 
To  add  brightness  to  the  sun,  or  glory  to  the  name  of  Wash- 
ington, is  alike  impossible.  Let  none  attempt  it.  In  solemn 
awe  pronounced  the  name,  and  in  its  naked,  deathless  splen- 
dor leave  it  shining  on. 


20 


A  MASTERFUL  TRIBuIJe 


To  the  Memory  of  President  Lincoln,  Delivered  at  the  Columbia  Theater, 

Washington,  D.  C.    April  14,  1907;  (  Fourth  Anniversary  of 

Mr.  Lincoln's  Assassination.) 

Bv  \Vm.  J.   Br  VAN. 

Ladies  and  Coiticmcn  : — I  am  glad  that  circumstances  were 
such  that  I  couhl  accept  the  invitation  extended  to  me  b}^  the 
L^nion  A'eteran  Leg'i(m  to  participate  in  this  memorial  occa- 
sion. It  is  fitting  that  this  sad  anniversary  should  be  com- 
memorated and  that  the  exercises  should  be  in  charge  of  those 
who,  in  that  great  crisis  in  our  nation's  history,  were  soldiers 
in  an  army  of  which  Abraham  Lincoln  was  commander-in- 
chief.  I  have  felt  that  while  these  veterans  of  the  Civil  War 
still  live  there  is  no  one  nor  class  to  dispute  their  right  to 
preeminence  in  all  such  occasions  as  this.  My  militar}-  ser- 
vice was  so  brief  and  so  free  from  the  dangers  that  these  in- 
curred that  I  do  not  count  myself  a  soldier,  although  in  the 
Spanish-American  War  my  otTer  of  my  services  was  dated  on 
the  day  that  the  war  was  declared,  and  my  resignation  was 
made  on  the  day  that  the  treaty  was  signed.  So  that  con- 
structive service  covered  all  the  real  war;  and  herein,  my 
friends,  I  realize  that  we  who  knew  only  the  camp,  knew  nothing' 
of  war.  I  bow  to  the  superiority  of  the  veterans,  who  were 
not  only  willing  to  fight  their  country's  battles  and  to  give 
their  lives  in  defense  of  the  flag,  but  who  had  an  opportunity 
to  prove  their  patriotism  by  long  and  painful  and  arduous 
service. 

I  appreciate  the  very  kind  word  that  has  been  spoken  by 
General  Black.  He  violates  one  of  the  Bible  injunctions  when 
he  praises  me.  for  the  Bible  says  that  one  should  not  praise 
the  work  of  his  own  hands.  He  was  a  judge  in  one  of  my  first 
oratorial  contests,  and  he  not  only  marked  me  high,  but  he  did 
more  than  that — he  g"ave  me  advice  after  the  contest  that  I 
have  always  treasured,  for  I  believe  it  was  of  great  service 
to  me.  I  am  glad,  therefore,  that  on  this  occasion  he  should 
be  the  president,  the  chairman,  and  present  me  to  you,  even 
if  his  words  are  more  generous  than  I  am  willing  to  admit 
that  I  deserve. 

I  am  glad  tonight  to  speak  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  I  was 
little  more  than  five  years  of  age  when  the  tragic  death  con- 
verted a  nation's  joy  into  a  nation's  mourning,  but  I  had 
scarcely  reached  manhood's  estate  when  I  became  an  ad- 
mirer of  Abraham  lincoln ;  and  when  I  was  a  student  in  the 
law^  school  I  took  him  as  my  subject  in  one  of  the  contests 
which  I  entered,  and  the  more  I  have  studied  him  the  larger 

21 


has  become  my  appreciation  of  him.  T  am  glad  that  at  this 
time  we  are  so  far  removed  from  the  prejudice  and  passion 
engendered  by  a  strife  that  we  can  behold  him  as  a  growing 
figure  in  our  nation's  history,  and  that  in  the  appreciation  of 
him  all  sections  of  our  reunited  land  can  gladly  join.  On 
this  occasion  I  desire  to  draw  a  few  lessons  from  life.  He 
was  one  of  the  great  orators  of  this  country.  I  believe  that 
when  the  history  of  our  public  speakers  is  written,  not  one 
of  them  will  stand  higher  than  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  lacked 
the  polish  of  schools  that  some  of  them  have;  he  lacked  the 
training  and  the  preparation  for  this  particular  work;  but  he 
had  to  a  remarkable  degree  the  essential  things  in  oratory. 
And  that  he  was  an  effective  speaker,  an  eloquent  speaker,  a 
persuasive  speaker  there  are  hundreds  in  this  audience  can 
testify,  because  hundreds  heard  him  speak.  When  I  was  a 
student  in  college  a  speaker  explained  to  us  the  difference  be- 
tween Demosthenes  and  Cicero.  He  said,  "When  Cicero 
■speaks  people  say  'How  well  Cicero  speaks  !'  but  when  De- 
mosthenes speaks  they  say  'Let  us  go  against  Phillip.'  "  The 
difference  being  that  one  impressed  himself  upon  the  audience, 
Ihe  other  impressed  his  subject;  one  left  the  audience  admir- 
ing the  speaker,  the  other  left  the  audience  intent  upon  carry- 
ing out  what  the  speaker  advised.  Lincoln  resembled  Demos- 
thenes rather  than  Cicero,  for  people  forgot  the  speaker  in  the 
earnestness  which  they  listened  to  what  the  speaker  had  pro- 
posed. Lincoln  had  the  two  essential  things  of  the  fine  orator: 
he  knew  what  he  was  talking  about,  and  he  meant  what  he 
said.  And  those  are  the  things  without  which  there  can  be 
no  eloquence.  Other  things  can  be  added  to  these,  but  they 
cannot  be  taken  from  speech  and  eloquence  be  left.  He  was 
student  enough  to  master  his  subject ;  he  filled  himself  with 
it,  and  when  he  spoke  upon  it  he  spoke  from  his  heart  to  the 
hearts  of  those  who  listened.  To  these  two  qualities  or  char- 
acteristics he  added  a  third  most  important  element  in  oratory, 
and  that  was  clearness  of  statement.  Few  men  have  lived  in 
this  country  who  could  state  a  question  more  clearly  than  he 
could.  It  seems  contradictory  to  say  that  there  are  certain 
self-evident  truths.  I  not  only  endorse  that  proposition,  but 
I  will  go  further  and  say  that  all  truth  is  self-evident,  and 
that  the  best  service  I  can  render  truth  is  to  state  it  clearly, 
for  a  truth  clearly  stated  needs  no  argument  in  its  defense. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  master  of  the  art  of  clear  and 
lucid  statement.  Illustration  is  a  powerful  form  of  argument. 
An  apt  illustration  is  one  of  the  most  convincing  things  that 
can  be  used.  If  we  know  that  a  thing  is  like  something  we 
have  seen,  we  can  understand  the  thing  that  we  have  not  seen. 
And  he  gathered  his  illustrations  from  the  life  of  the  people; 
therefore,  when  he  spoke  to  the  people  he  could  make  his  sub- 

22 


ject  clear  and  easily  understood.  lie  understood  the  use  of 
the  interrogatory  he  could  put  an  arguiuent  in  a  question  ;  and 
that  is  one  of  the  arts  of  oratory.  Some  of  the  strongest  arg-u- 
ments  ever  presented  in  speech  have  been  presented  in  the 
form  of  a  (|uestion.  Christ  gave  us  an  illustration  of  that: 
"\\'hat  shall  it  ]irofit  a  man  if  he  g^ain  the  whole  world  and 
lose  his  own  soul?"'  How  many  \olumes  can  you  write  before 
you  will  present  that  argument  as  strongl}^  as  it  is  ])resented 
in  that  cpiestion?  An  unanswerable  argument  presented  in 
a  question.  I  do  not  believe  we  have  any  illustration  in  public 
life  in  this  country  of  greater  ]:)Ower  of  statement,  or  clearer, 
greater  force  in  cpiestioning  than  that  presented  by  Abraham 
Lincoln.  There  is  a  question  that  he  presented  in  one  of  his 
messages,  and  if  the  country  had  not  been  wrought  up,  if 
passion  had  not  at  that  time  clouded  the  vision,  if  the  blood 
had  not  at  that  time  been  so  hot  that  calmness  was  impos- 
sible, the  question  that  he  put  must,  it  seems  to  me,  have  car- 
ried conviction  with  it.  You  will  remember  the  powerful  plea 
he  made:  "What  if  we  do  have  war,  it  must  end  sometime; 
we  must  live  here  side  by  side  in  peace — we  cannot  separate, 
nature  placed  us  so,"  and  then  the  question.  "Can  aliens  make 
treaties  easier  than  friends  can  make  laws?"  \\'here  will  you 
find  an  argument  that  is  stronger  than  the  argum.ent  carried 
in  that  simple  question  ? 

Ihit  he  was  mare  than  a  great  orator,  he  was  a  great 
statesman.  Our  country  has  produced  no  superior  to  him  as 
an  executive  dealing  with  prol>lems  as  a  practical  statesman, 
wath  a  grasp  on  tilings  that  he  had.  Morse  defines  a  states- 
man as  a  man  who  foresees  and  foretells.  Lincoln  was  a 
statesman  :  he  could  foresee  and  he  foretold.  Lincoln  under- 
stood the  human  heart;  he  understood  the  American  people; 
he  understood  the  principles  involved  in  the  great  contest; 
and  he  could  look  ahead  and  see,  and  he  spoke  out.  It  is  said 
that  when  he  was  preparing  that  speech  that  was  the  first  in 
his  national  career,  the  speech  at  Springfield,  he  walked  the 
fioor  trying  to  find  some  expression  that  would  bring  to  the 
people  the  thought  that  was  in  his  own  mind ;  and  at  last  he 
said.  "I  have  found  it.  The  American  people  are  a  Bible- 
reading  people,  and  a  Bible  quotation  will  not  only  be  recog- 
nized by  them,  but  it  will  have  more  influence  with  them  than 
anything  else  I  could  quote;"  and  then  he  quoted  this:  "A 
liouse  divided  against  itself  shall  not  stand."  In  my  judgment 
it  is  the  most  effective  Bible  quotation  that  was  ever  used  in 
the  discussion  of  a  public  issue.  And  then,  going  beyond  the 
strife,  he  foresaw  the  time  when  the  house  would  cease  to  be 
divided. 

Forty-two  years   ago  he  passed   from   earth   at   the  very 
climax  of  his  great  career.     How  happy  he  is  tonight  if  from 

23 


Ill's  abod»  above  he  can  look  down  upon  this  country  and  see 
his  prophecy  fulfilled;  the  house  no  longer  divided,  the  root 
of  bitterness  taken  away,  the  people  reunited,  a  nation  one  as 
he  wanted  it  to  be.     He  foresaw,  he  foretold. 

He  had  another  quality  of  statesmanship :  he  had  moral 
courage.  I  am  not  sure  but  moral  courage  is  a  finer  virtue 
than  physical  courage;  I  am  not  sure  but  it  is  more  difficult 
for  a  person  to  meet  great  opposition  that  does  not  endanger 
the  body  than  to  meet  the  opposition  that  imperils  the  body. 
If  moral  courage  is  not  more  difficult  to  exhibit  and  more 
rare,  it  is  certainly  an  indispensible  thing  for  a  statesman;  and 
Lincoln  had  it.  Lincoln  dared  to  stand  alone ;  he  dared  to 
speak  his  thoughts ;  he  dared  to  have  his  position ;  he  dared  to 
submit  his  reasons  and  abide  the  consequences.  He  had  pas- 
sions— wonderful  passions.  On  the  one  side  he  had  some 
which  would  hold  him  back,  and  on  the  other,  some  which 
would  push  him  faster  than  he  felt  he  ought  to  go.  I  never 
read  the  letter  he  wrote  to  Horace  Greelev  without  feeling 
that  my  admiration  for  Lincoln  rises  a  little  more.  It  was  the 
statement  of  the  man  who  saw  the  light  that  he  was  to  follow, 
who  was  determined  to  follow  it,  and  who  was  willing  to  wait 
and  suffer  any  kind  of  criticism  until  the  time  came  to  act. 
He  fitted  into  his  time;  v,^e  needed  then  just  such  a  man. 

The  kindness  of  the  man !  Have  you  read  Markham's 
poem,  "Abraham  Lincoln?"'  Markham  has  about  a  dozen  lines 
that  contain  similes  that  I  think  have  not  been  surpassed  for 
their  beauty ;  and  the  one  that  I  like  best  of  them  all  was  that 
in  which  he  described  Lincoln  by  saying  that  he  had  the  lov- 
ing kindness  of  the  wayside  well.  I  could  see  the  well  by  the 
wayside  where  the  traveler  passing  along  stopped  to  quench 
liis  thirst ;  the  well  that  is  always  at  hand ;  the  well  that  is 
friend  to  everyone.  I  do  not  know  that  I  have  ever  read  a 
phrase  that  better  describes  a  great,  loving,  overflowing  heart 
than  that — the  loving  kindness  of  the  wayside  well. 

He  fitted  into  his  time  because  he  was  great  enough  to 
hate  slavery  without  hating  slave-holders.-  And  do  you  know 
that  that  is  one  of  the  God-like  things  to  which  man  should 
aspire — to  hate  wrong  and  love  the  wrongdoer  ?  To  recognize 
lionesty  on  the  other  side  as  well  as  on  your  side,  and  let 
your  fight  be  egainst  wrong.  (Applause.)  My  friends.  I  do 
not  know  of  another  man  anywhere  who  w^as  his  equal  in 
-depth  and  breadth  of  view.  Born  in  Kentucky  and  reared  in 
Illinois,  he  seemed  to  have  been  prepared  for  the  great  work 
he  had  to  do.  Lie  loved  the  southern  people,  but  his  heart 
revolted  against  the  institution  of  slavery.  He  wanted  to  get 
rid  of  slaver}^  and  he  did  not  want  to  hurt  anybody  who  dif- 
fered from  him  on  the  question.  A  great  man  in  a  great  time ! 
But  there  were  two  sections  of  the  country,  and  they  differed 

24 


upon  a  great  question,  and  there  was  honesty  on  both  sides. 
There  was  conscience  behind  the  gun  that  pointed  north  and 
conscience  behind  the  gun  that  pointed  south.  (Applause.) 
These  people  met  questions  that  they  had  to  settle ;  these  peo- 
ple met  to  settle  the  questions  by  th  only  way  that  seemed 
possible.  A  difference  that  defied  a  pea^reful  settlement.  There 
were  some  in  the  North  who  were  not  broad  enough  to  love 
the  people  of  the  South,  in  spite  of  the  institution  that  was 
doomed ;  and  there  were  those  in  the  South  not  broad  enough 
to  love  the  people  in  the  Nortli  in  s])ite  of  their  opposition 
to  slavery.  But  Lincoln  was  large  enough  to  love  the  people, 
North  and  South,  and  only  hate  the  things  that  made  two 
peoples  where  there  ought  to  have  been  one  people.  (Applause.) 
Lincoln  was  the  typical  American.  I  think  we  have  not  pro- 
duced a  man  \\  ho  better  illustrated  the  possibilities  of  Amer- 
ica. I  believe  we  have  not  produced  a  man  whose  life  gives 
more  inspiration  to  the  people  than  his  life  gives.  We  have 
never  produced  a  man  whose  career  was  better  proof  of  the 
fact  that  man's  greatness  is  not  of  himself  but  in  the  vir- 
tues and  the  ideals  which  his  life  presents.  Lincoln  grew, 
not  because  he  was  a  great  orator,  although  that  helped  his 
growth;  he  grew,  not  because  he  w^as  a  great  statesman,  for 
until  he  became  invested  wdth  power  he  had  not  had  an  oppor- 
tunity to  prove  that  he  was  a  statesman,  and  his  reputation 
as  an  orator  was  far  greater  after  his  election  than  before,  for 
few  of  the  people  of  this  country  had  a  chance  to  know  him 
well  until  he  became  President.  He  attached  himself  to  an 
idea  and  he  rose  with  that  idea.  To  every  young  man  Lin- 
coln's life  ought  to  be  an  inspirationfi  for  Lincoln's  life  teaches 
that  the  man  who  takes  hold  of  a  great  idea  and  forgets  him- 
self in  his  devotion  to  it  will  gather  strength  as  the  idea 
grows,  and  rise  as  the  idea  rises.  (Applause.)  Lincoln's  life 
has  well  illustrated  that.  Lincoln's  power  was  more  of  a  heart 
powder.  I  believe,  judged  b}'  intellectual  standards,  that  he  is 
inferior  to  none.  I  do  not  mean  by  educational  standards,  be- 
cause he  lacked  education,  but  by  intellectual  standards. 
jMeasured  by  mind,  measured  by  poAver  to  comprehend,  meas- 
ured by  accuracy  of  judgment,  measured  by  aptness  of  ex- 
pression, he  was  inferior  to  none.  But  he  was  greater  in  his 
heart  than  he  was  in  his  head,  and  he  proved  that  which  has 
been  demonstrated  so  often  before,  that  wdiile  Ave  brag  about 
the  head  w-e  after  all  respect  the  heart.  Carlisle,  in  the  closing' 
words  of  his  "French  Revolution,"  presents  a  very  important 
thought.  He  says  that  thought  is  stronger  than  artillery  and 
moulds  the  world  like  soft  clay,  and  that  back  of  thought  is 
love  and  that  there  never  was  a  great  head  unless  there  was 
a  genuine  heart  behind  it.  (Applause.)  T_.incoln's  heart  took 
in    the   world.      Lincoln's    heart    lin.ked    him    to    the    common 

25 


people.  Lincoln  once  said  that  God  must  have  loved  the  com- 
mon people,  because  he  made  so  many  of  them.  It  was  his 
way  of  expressing"  it,  but  Lincoln  never  used  the  phrase  "com-  ^ 

mon  people"  as  a  term  of  reproach,  for  the  highest  compli- 
ment ever  paid  any  class  of  people  was  paid  to  the  common 
people.     In  the  Bible  it  says  that  when  Christ  presented  the  j 

doctrine  of  Christianity  the  common  people  heard  him  gladly. 
It  is  a  great  compliment.  Lincoln  believed  in  the  common 
people.  Lincoln  trusted  the  common  people.  Lincoln  felt 
that  the  common  people  in  this  country  were  the  nation's 
strength.  They  were  then;  they  arc  now;  they  ever  will  be. 
The  common  people  produce  the  nation's  wealth  in  times  of 
peace;  the}^  hght  the  nation's  battles  in  times  of  war.  The 
volunteer  soldier,  of  whom  we  have  heard  so  eloquently  to- 
night, is  the  common  man.  The  common  people  work  when 
the  country  needs  workers  ;  they  fight  when  the  country  needs 
lighters.  The}^  make  the  laws,  they  enforce  the  laws ;  and 
because  they  must  enforce  the  laws,  if  necessarv,  they  are 
careful  Avhen  they  make  them.  The  common  people  were  the 
pople  whom  Lincoln  looked  up  to.  They  were  the  people 
with  whom  he  identified  himself.  He  had  struggled  in  their 
ranks  and  he  knew  their  strength,  and  he  knew  that  they 
would  not  fail  in  any  crisis.  Lincoln  had  faith;  he  was  a  man 
of  faith.  His  name  was  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  it  was  Abra- 
ham who  gave  us  that  first  examole  of  great  faith,  who,  at 
the  call  of  the  Almighty,  went  out  a  thousand  miles  from 
home,  among  a  strange  people,  to  establish  a  new  religion. 
Wonderful  faith  it  was.  And  from  that  faith  there  grew  one 
of  the  greatest  races  of  the  world  ;  and  from  that  faith  that 
he  established  there  grew  a  religion  until  nearly  four  hundred 
million  human  beings  Avorship  the  one  God  at  whose  call 
Abraham  went  forth.  Faith  is  the  power  influencing  all  of 
our  li\'cs.  Faith  leads  us  to  do  and  dare.  And  Lincoln  had 
faith  in  himself.  He  believed  that  he  could  do  things.  He 
understood  that  which  he  believed  he  could  accomplish — he 
was  able  to  accomplish.  He  had  faith  in  humanity,  and  that 
is  an  important  faith.  He  believed  in  mankind ;  he  knew  the 
human  heart,  and  he  knew  that  when  he  came  to  the  heart  he 
found  that  all  were  much  alike. 

My  friends,  it  is  at  the  heart  that  \\'e  all  meet.  Travel  in 
different  lands  and  you  will  find  people  speaking"  different  lan- 
guages ;  you  will  find  different  traditions  and  race  character- 
istics and  differences  in  history ;  you  will  find  differences  in 
forms  of  government;  you  will  find  differences  in  church  wor-  -^ 

ship;  but  wdien  you  find  the  heart  you  will  find  that  manhood 
is  much  the  same  everywhere,  and  that  if  you  would  reach 
people,  instead  of  directing"  all  your  arguments   at  the  head,  j^, 

you  have   to  direct  your  arguments  at  the  heart.      It   is   out 

26 


of  the   heart  that   the   purpose   comes.      It   is   the    heart   that 
directs  the  life,  and  from  the  heart  comes  the  ideals  and  moral 
virtues  upon  which  civilization  rests.     Buckle  describes  civil- 
ization as  a  state  of  the  human  mind,  the  i)rincipal  element 
of  which  is  the  moral  element.     T  would  ask  to  differ  with 
him.     The  moral  element  is  essential  to  civilization,  and  the 
nations  that  have  ^Q^one  down  have  gone  down  because  they 
were  rotten  at  the  heart.     (Applause.)     The  heart,  the  heart  is 
that   upon   which   we   must   build,   and    Lincoln   had   faith    in 
mankind  because  he  knew  that  in  the  heart  of  every  man  was 
a   sense  of  justice   to   which  an   appeal   could   be   made.     He 
had  faith  in  the  government.     He  believed  in  our  theory  of 
government.    He  took  as  his  great  instructor  the  author  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  and  in  his  speeches  and  in  his 
letters  he  spoke  as  eloquently  of  the  wisdom  of  Thomas  Jef- 
ferson  as  any   man   has   ever  spoken.      (Applause.)      He   be- 
lieved that  our  form  of  g'overnment  Avould  live;  he  believed 
that   it  would  spread.     It  has  lived,  and   it   is  spreading.     A 
century  and  a  quarter  ago  and  a  little  more,  certain  ideas  of 
government   were    planted    on    this    soil.      They   have    grown 
here.     Our  nation  did  not  make  these  ideas  great;  the  ideas 
made  our  nation  great.     Our  nation's  position  today  is  due 
more   to   any  other   thing  to  the   fact   that   these   ideas   have 
emanated  from   this  country.     They  have  girdled  the   globe. 
The  light  that  was  shining  here  has  sent  out  its  rays  to  every 
land,  and  in  all  the  years  our  influence  in  the  world  has  been 
a  high  and  holy  one.     For  more  than   a  century  our  nation 
has  been  a  Avorld   power.     Not  only  that — for   more   than   a 
century  our  nation  has  been  tlic  great  power  in  the  world.     (Ap- 
plause.)     Other  nations  had  their  thrones   and   their   armies 
and  their  ships,  and  yet  our  nation  with  its  little  army  and  its 
little  navy  has  been  strong  enough  to  force  its  ideas,  through- 
out the  world,  on  all  countries.     Have  you  noticed  the  growth 
of  its  ideas  in  the  last  two  years?    AMthin  two  years  the  Em- 
press   Dowager    of    China    has    sent    envoys    throughout    the 
world  to  gather  information  for  the  adoption  of  a  constitu- 
tion.   A\"ithin  two  years  Austria  has  enlarged  the  basis  of  her 
representation  in  the  Reichsrath.     W^ithin  a  year  the  govern- 
of  representation  in  the  popular  branch  of  the  legislature.     In 
England  now^  the  great  political  question  is  between  the  House 
of  Commons  and  the  House  of  Lords :     Shall  the  people  rule 
through  their  elected  representatives,  or  shall  electorial  pow- 
er "put  down"  the  people's  power?     And  look  at  Russia,  who 
until  recently,  has  been  a  synonym  for  depotism.     Our  blood 
has  boiled  as  we  have  read  of  people  dragged  from  their  homes 
and  imprisoned  or  executed,  and,  after  a  while  the  people  by 
infinite  suffering  and  sacrifice,  secured  the  rivilege  of  a  douma, 
and   when   an    election    was    held   and   they   had   a    chance   to 

27 


express  themselves  they  took  ad\'antaoe  of  it.  In  St.  Peters- 
burg 60,000  votes  were  cast,  and  58,000  were  cast  against  the 
Czar's  ticket,  2,000  for  his  ticket.  In  his  voting  precinct  300 
voters  were  sent  to  the  polls  in  guarded  carriages.  Eighty 
of  them  voted  for  him  and  220  voted  for  the  opposition.  And 
when  the  douma  convened  they  did  not  indorse  parties — they 
were  all  reformers,  differing  only  in  the  degree  of  their  rad- 
icalism. The  Czar  dissolved  the  douma  and  held  a  new  elec- 
tion. The  new  douma  is  more  radical  than  the  old  one.  It 
was  my  good  fortune  to  see  the  first  douma  in  session.  I 
believe  no  more  remarkable  body  of  men  has  assembled  in 
this  world  for  many  years,  and  as  they  sat  there  you  could 
read  in  their  faces  the  history  of  a  nation's  suffering,  and  a 
grim  determination  that  Russia's  wrongs  should  be  righted. 
The  new  douma  is  in  session ;  the  people  have  spoken  again, 
and  the  Czar  announces  through  his  premier  that  the  govern- 
ment will  approve  the  people's  measures  providing  for  free 
speech,  and  free  press,  and  uniform  education.  Thus  is  Rus- 
sia moving  forward.  Thus  is  the  voice  of  the  people  being 
heard.  Thus  are  the  ideas  for  which  Lincoln  contended 
spreading  throughout  the  world,  and  when  Russia  enjoys 
these  reforms  to  which  she  is  entitled,  and  for  which  she  has 
struggled,  she  will  take  her  place  among  the  great  nations 
of  the  world,  for  people  who  are  willing  to  die  for  liberty 
have  in  them  the  material  of  which  great  nations  are  made. 
There  are  three  kinds  of  governments :  Monarchy,  Aristoc- 
racy, and  Democracy.  I  dissent  from  two-thirds  of  them. 
(Laughter.)  Lincoln  was  right  when  he  contended  for  a  gov- 
ernment of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people. 
Neither  the  monarchy  nor  the  aristocracy  is  among  the  strong- 
est of  governments.  A  republic  is  not  only  the  strongest 
and  wisest,  but  the  most  secure  of  governments.  Why  is  our 
government  stronger?  Because  the  people  are  willing  to  de- 
fend it.  Our  government  is  stronger  because  the  people  love 
it,  and  they  love  it  because  it  is  good,  and  it  is  good  because 
the  people  speak  and  their  voice  is  loud.  (Applause.)  My 
friends,  it  needs  not  that  we  should  praise  Abraham  Lincoln, 
his  fame  is  secure.  Nothing  that  we  could  say  would  reduce 
his  station.  Fixed  is  his  star  in  the  firmament,  and  rising 
higher  and  higher.  It  will  be  seen  by  increasing  millions, 
and  wherever  seen  it  will  represent  that  which  is  highest  and 
noblest  and  best  in  the  life  of  a  government  like  ours.  Lin- 
coln delivered  an  oration  that  has  no  equal  in  the  same  num- 
ber of  words  in  this  language.  The  speech  that  he  made  at 
the  battlefield  of  Gettysburg,  for  the  size  of  it  and  the  length 
of  it,  has  never  been  approached  by  any  human  being.  If  he 
had  never  made  any  other  speech,  his  fame  as  an  orator  might 
have  rested  on  that.     And  in  that  speech,  great  because  of  its 

28 


simplicity,  far-reaching'  because  of  its  depth,  he  said  that  they 
had  not  met  there  to  hallow  that  ground,  that  those  who  had 
fallen  there  had  hallowed  it;  that  they  were  there,  not  to  con- 
secrate it,  but  to  consecrate  themselves  to  the  unfinished  work 
which  they  who  fell  there  had  so  Avell  advanced,  that  it  was 
rather  for  those  who  had  assembled  there  to  dedicate  them- 
selves, to  consecrate  themselves,  to  that  unfinished  work  that 
a  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people 
should  not  perish  from  the  earth.  And  so  we  are  met  here 
tonight,  not  that  any  feeble  words  of  ours  can  bring  peace  to 
one  who  sleeps,  not  that  any  flowers  of  rhetoric  can  be  added 
to  the  flow^ers  that  have  been  piled  upon  his  tomb,  but  rather 
that  in  the  spirit  which  he  manifested  we  shall  dedicate  our- 
selves to  that  work  which  was  so  dear  to  him.  He  could  look 
beyond  the  strife  and  the  turmoil  and  see  a  united  people;  we 
now  realize  the  fulfillment  of  his  dream  and  of  his  vision. 
And  as  we  meet  on  this  anniversary,  forty-two  years  after  his 
death,  when  we  can  see  the  completed  work  which  he  began, 
but  was  not  permitted  to  see  entirely  rounded  out,  we  can 
understand,  even  better  than  those  who  lived  then,  the  price- 
less value  of  his  service  and  the  greatness  of  the  work  which 
be  left  to  us  that  follow  him. 

I  come  here  tonight  to  vie  with  the  soldiers  in  their  hom- 
age to  the  great,  dead  President,  to  mingle  my  words  with 
theirs,  and  to  have  my  heart  beat  as  their  hearts  beat  in  sym- 
pathy with  his  aspirations  and  his  hopes.  I  come  to  join  wnth 
3^ou,  with  all  of  you,  as  he  would  have  us  join,  in  the  resolu- 
tion that  this  nation  shall  be  what  he  and  the  others  who  toiled 
for  it  hoped  and  desired  and  expected  that  it  would  be.  Mr. 
Thurston  has  spoken  of  the  effect  of  the  Spanish  Avar  in  bring- 
ing" together  people  who  had  once  been  fighting  each  other. 
I  was  where  I  could  realize  something  of  the  seaming  process, 
for  short  as  was  my  service  it  was  sufiicient  to  enable  me  to 
testify  from  what  I  saw  and  heard  that  the  rivalry  in  the 
Spanish  war  between  the  sons  of  those  who  wore  the  blue 
and  the  sons  of  those  who  wore  the  gray  was  to  see  who 
could  show  the  greatest  devotion  and  the  highest  loyalty  to 
the  flag  which  they  both  loved.  (Applause.)  But  of  all  these 
regiments,  gathered  from  the  northland  and  the  southland.  I 
heard  them  playing  the  sectional  airs,  and  then  I  heard  them 
join  in  the  national  hymns,  and  I  felt  that  indeed  our  people 
were  one — no  north,  no  south,  no  east,  no  west,  a  larger  fam- 
ily our  country  is  today.  The  glory  of  our  Civil  War  was  not 
that  one  side  whipped  the  other ;  it  was  that  victors  held  the 
vanquished  in,  such  close  embrace  that  they  soon  became  good 
friends,  and  one  nation  now  leads  the  world  in  all  that  goes 
to  make  up  the  greatness  of  a  nation.  If  I  ever  doubted  the 
superiority  of  my  nation,  I  would  not  doubt  it  after  having  a 

29 


chance  to  compare  it  with  other  nations.  We  complain  of 
our  money  worshippers,  and  with  reason,  but  my  friends,  there 
is  more  altruism  in  the  United  States  than  there  is  in  any 
other  nation  on  earth  today,  and  our  nation  is  doing  more  in 
a  disinterested  way  than  any  other  nation  that  lives  or  has 
lived.  Our  nation  today  is  giving  the  world  ideals,  and  the 
ideal  is  the  most  important  thing.  Our  nation  today  is  set- 
ting the  example,  and  that  example  is  having  its  influence 
around  the  w^orld.  Our  nation  is  a  peaceful  nation.  These 
soldiers  who  bared  their  breasts  to  the  enemy's  fire  were 
lovers  of  peace,  not  professional  soldiers,  and  when  the  war 
Vv'as  over  they  went  back  to  their  occupations.  And  today 
there  are  no  stronger  forces  for  peace  in  this  world  than  those 
who  bore  the  musket  when  their  country  called  them.  These 
people  in  this  country  who,  when  the  necessity  arose,  were 
willing  to  fight,  these  are  the  champions  of  peace,  and  these 
understand  that  a  nation's  position  is  to  be  demonstrated  not 
by  the  force  it  exerts  on  other  nations,  but  by  the  good  we  can 
do  other  nations.  Our  greatness  is  not  measured  by  our  army 
or  our  navy,  but  by  our  ideals.  Our  greatest  products  are 
not  the  products  of  the  farm  or  factory,  but  minds  and  bodies 
developed  according  to  high  ideals,  and  our  greatest  factories 
are  not  our  factories  with  their  towering  smokestacks,  but 
our  schools  and  colleges  and  churches  that  take  in  raw  ma- 
terial and  turn  out  such  a  finished  product  as  the  world  has 
never  known  before.  (Applause.)  This  nation,  with  its  gov- 
ernment of  the  people,  for  the  people,  and  by  the  people  is 
destined  to  impress  the  world  as  no  other  nation  has  impressed 
it.  not  by  force  or  violence,  but  by  developing  here  the  high- 
est civilization  'iver  known,  and  our  nation's  rise  through  this 
development  will  influence  every  other  nation  by  the  power 
of  a  noble  example. 

I  thank  you.     (Applause.) 


30 


Lincoln  Memorial  Association. 


There  was  organized  in  Kansas  City,  Kansas,  on  the 
15th  day  of  April,  1907,  a  Lincoln  Memorial  Association, 
for  the  State  of  Kansas,  with  the  following  officers,  viz: 
Ira  Haworth,  president;  Frank  Gibson,  vice-president; 
Mrs.  A.  A.  Brooks,  secretary;  Miss  Bertha  Ball  assistant 
secretary;  and  Mrs.  Elmaker,  treasurer;  with  an  executive 
board  of  seven  members. 

The  object  of  the  association  is  to  keep  alive  the 
spirit  of  patriotism  and  the  fame  of  the  martyred  presi- 
dent, and  encourage  a  spirit  of  loyalty  in  the  rising  gen- 
eration. 

To  this  end,  it  is  important  that  this  organization 
should  be  augmented,  and  auxiliary  societies  established 
throughout  this  State  and  the  West. 

Persons  desiring  to  assist  in  this  laudable  undertaking 
by  promoting  auxiliary  organizations,  here  or  elsevv^here, 
should  correspond  with  the  president,  Mr.  Ira  Haworth, 
Kansas  City,  Kansas,  and  receive  blanks  and  instructions. 
This  is  an  excellent  time  to  start  such  a  movement,  start- 
ing out  with  the  centennial  anniversary  of  the  birth  of 
Lincoln. 


31 


